Thursday, December 30, 2010

2011? What the...?

Wow. THAT was a quick end to the year. I haven't even posted any dog pics from the fall yet! Guess I'd better get busy since we're only a few hours away from the new year. First up:
Dear Abby




Abby happens to live about 4 blocks from me so I had a real short commute. She's a black lab/Visalia combo and she's quite a jumper. This deer dog is capable of clearing 5 foot fences which is pretty amazing.  Needless to say, we did most of the photo shoot in the safety of the walled back yard. We also did some nice shots in her house as well as on the nearby bike path.




Abby is supervised by Monica, who demonstrated some of Abby's skills while I clicked away. We had a nice fall day - around 75 degrees - which seems like a lifetime away as I currently stare out at a yard full of snow.




Abby was a great subject! She sat when we asked her to as well as laid down, jumped, walked, and about anything else you could think of. We had a fun afternoon!







Thanks Abby!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Lab Work


Dogs Cali and Carson live near Columbus, WI - about a 30 minute drive from Madison. They've got a pretty good gig going on up there - big yard, indoor/outdoor heated kennel with radio, etc. Sudha and Erik are their owners who get to live with them but first, a little about each of the dogs...


Cali is a smallish, female Black Labrador who is a recovering ACL surgery recipient. She's a tennis ball fanatic who really likes to have one handy at all times in case a game of fetch breaks out. Sadly, fetch is only allowed while swimming because of the recent surgery and we've got no water today. Cali is your typical friendly Lab who likes to lead the pack on walks and oversees the household from her perch at the top of the stairs. She was the only dog in the house un-til...


...big Carson joined the family about a year ago. He's is a jumbo sized (120 pound) yellow Lab who is just a lovable, goofy giant. Sudha describes Carson as the "dog equivalent of (husband) Erik" and sure enough, Erik shows up wearing a yellow shirt for our photo session.  Carson likes his tug-of-war ring better than the tennis ball but he also had ACL surgery so we don't get too rough today.


After a morning of exploring the big yard, the deck, and going for a short walk, it was time to check out the house. When you walk in the door, you are greeted by a HUGE moose head mounted on the wall. I really wanted to work him into some shots of the dogs (and later, cats) but I couldn't figure out a way to overcome the height difference. No matter, the dogs were gracious enough to be good hosts and pose in their normal hang outs for me.


A couple of cats (including "Moo" pictured above) share the house with C & C so I got a little cat photography practice in. Our summer morning together ended with each dog getting a delicious (I'm assuming) doggie ice cream. I wouldn't know what they taste like...I wasn't offered one. :)





Thanks to Sudha, Erik, Carson, Cali and miscellaneous cats for a very fun morning in the country!
(click on images for larger version)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Beam me up...



Here's a photo shoot from spring that hasn't be "blogged" yet. A pair of Scotties from Madison who are a little on the...shall we say, rambunctious side. Oh sure, they are very cute and manicured in the pictures. Just wait till you see the pictures at the end.





Grady (the off-white one) and Gregor (the really off-white one) were very polite when I came to the door. They greeted me and my dog-scented camera bag with lots of sniffing. After a short meet-n-greet it was off to their highly manicured backyard for some ball wrangling, rabbit sniffing, and general mischief.

I don't know the breed very well, my previous experience with Scotties was when I was bitten in the leg by one when I was six, so I was given a short tutorial by their mom, Nancy. Apparently, they have the same size teeth as a German Shepherd. I highly doubted that was true until Nancy lifted opened the mouth of Gregor and exposed....GIANT GERMAN SHEPHERD TEETH! I feel sorry for any burrowing animal that has the misfortune of being trapped in a hole with one of these things coming at you. The other tidbit of info about the breed I learned was that you can lift this breed by their sturdy tail which comes in quite handy when you need to move this portable dog. (Warning - never pull or lift any dog by their tail! Nancy is a "breed expert" and knows how to do this.)


After our trip outside, I got to see the inside version of these guys. That included wrestling with the empty dog food bag, a short trip through the Scottie museum in Nancy's house, and a visit by the UPS guy. Remember my warning at the beginning of this?



The chairs (yes, these were upholstered chairs at one point) serve as a substitute item to attack since the dogs aren't able to go after visiting bad guys - in this case, played by the UPS guy. The chairs sit in the living room to serve as a warning to delivery people everywhere that these guys mean business!


Fortunately, photographers are not on their "bad guy" list and I was allowed to pass without injury. I just feel sorry for the guy who was to delivery the pictures to Nancy.

(Click on images for larger version)

Friday, July 30, 2010

Monte and Kierra


I got a request several weeks ago to photograph two Stafforshire Terriers that go by the names Monte (boy) and Kierra (girl). I’ll explain the reason for the request at the end of the story but I was told that Kierra would be crated on my arrival. Not that I was in any physical danger but there was a possibility of being over-licked by the overly excited Kierra.



I was met at the door by Deborah and a calm Monte - a brindle who was quite happy to meet me. A high energy Kierra was released and she welcomed me with a blast of giddiness. I had a loose hold on her collar when the head-butt attempt happened and I stopped it in mid-...er, butt (I was the recipient of a head-butt to the nose the week before by our jumbo Lab neighbor Ted and was ready this time).


Things quickly settled down and the dogs resumed their usual places in the house. From a photo stand point, things were not looking real good. It was a super hot and sticky day which limited what we could do outside. I doubted my ability to pull this one off but I was about teach myself a couple of lessons. 


I started getting photos of Monte sitting in his place of honor - on the largest bean-bag chair I have ever seen! It’s so big, you have to take the stuffing out of it to get it through the door! Kierra took up residence under a large end table. One of the most touching photos from this session took place there when Deborah was on the floor interacting with Kierra and reached her hand out halfway. Kierra didn’t pause and did the same, placing her paw on top of Deborah’s hand. I knew that I had at least one good shot.


A half hour later we went out to the backyard - it was smaller with a picnic table, and a large fence. More worry! I got shots of Kierra wandering around by herself until Monte joined us after a bit. Deborah and the dogs hopped on the picnic table and posed...perfectly! I took a TON of photos (over 450) that day which makes it a pain to edit later on but it was worth it.




The dogs were great and I before I knew it, our time was up. After some intensive photo editing, I was very happy with the final results. Deborah said the photos were way more than she was expecting. It was great spending time with a Stafforshire Terrier named Monte. Oh...and Kierra too! Just gotta out for those head-butts!

*A few weeks ago I got Deborah's email. It seemed like the usual interested dog-owner who wanted to get some nice photos taken of their pets. As I read through the message, it became clear that this was not a normal request for pictures and I finally got to the line where she stated that her “primary focus is getting some photos taken of Monte since he was recently diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoma”. I’m no doctor but I know the word Lymphoma. The T-cell part I had to look up but I’ll save you the technical information and just say that it does not have a very good prognosis. 

I hated to taint a good story with a sad ending but I also wanted to drive home the point that our pets and friends don’t stay with us forever. Even a dog that’s healthy it’s whole life, only lives 10-15 years. So, don’t forget to take pictures to keep those memories around. You can hire a professional photographer, or just take them yourself but the important thing either way is just to take them.